MIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ( 1998-2006 )

Towards the end of 1997 I was living in Milano, Italy. I was at that time free-lancing, crossing the Alps for some ballet production at the Bern Opera (Switzerland). One day I received a fax (yes, old times!) with information about an opening for a conducting position/assistant professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I decided to participate. I recall that in the audition they asked for a Schumann Symphony, whereas my choice of music was  Stravinsky’s Firebird. They also asked the candidates to teach a class to a group of students: I chose a theme derived from information theory, and related to semiotics.

Some weeks later I was told I won the opening. I organized my move to the States – hoping to have a secure job which included a guaranteed consideration for eventual tenure. When arriving I was told that the orchestra was not in great shape, there was apparently not much interest from students, the personnel was limited to perhaps some 40-50 students, including the addition of some non MIT players who played in the concerts. I organized individual auditions for every student interested in participating. I made clear that all of them would need to audition, from freshmen to older students – even if they were part of the then current symphony personnel.

The results were quite surprising: so many students chose to come see me in my three full days of auditions. I heard some playing that could be comparable in efficiency and musicianship to any good conservatory students. I was shocked to see students who would come twice to see me: as I explained that they had already played..they answered that they wanted to audition with two different instruments (?). The beginning of my admiration grew from the first metaphorical stems of little extraordinary gestures: in my first rehearsal I thought that I had a great team of brilliant kids, with wonderful unassuming behavior, coupled with the highest collective intelligence I ever observed.

Later on I learnt that I won the position after an international search where reportedly more than 300 applicants participated. After auditions were over, with my careful work, I transformed an orchestra of about 35 players, to a full 80/90 students’ ensemble.

From our first concert with Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, the Nielsen Flute Concerto (Ole Nielsen, flute, as purportedly Broadway Showy display “Nielsen plays Nielsen”) and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, we were on route to become – as some Berklee College colleagues coined it- ‘the best kept secret of music making in Boston’. In years to come, my wonderful group of dazzling kids would excel in tackling a repertoire that included Mahler 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th symphonies, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre, Firebird and Petrouchka, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, and Music for Strings, Percussion andCelesta, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, and the great Charles Ives’ 4th Symphony, among many other pieces. The ensemble was admired in the Boston area, audiences were interested in our programs, and the public was thrilled to appreciate the orchestra’s technical and expressive qualities.Our programs also included important pieces by faculty composers such as John Harbison, and Evan Ziporyn among others, and also organized readings of pieces written by composition students -some of them were played in our concerts.

I also created a string chamber orchestra with the best talent from the string players on campus. We played a vast repertoire of the classics including  Dvorak and Tchaikovsky Serenades, Bartok’s divertimento, Stravinsky Apollon Musagète and Vivaldi’s the Seasons. In our concerts I included choral symphonic pieces sang by the MIT Chorus. While at MIT, I was able to enhance the quality of performances to a higher level: our concerts series had the highest attendance in decades.

My annual auditions were well attended, with a yearly record of more than 200 students from 2001 on. The popularity of the orchestra grew tremendously, and my students were happily working to overcome the challenges I placed for them. It was a joy to see them grow, to see their smiles when receiving those strong applauses, to see them coming and later leaving me and the group when they graduated, to see how life – sometimes – gives us an unexpected present.

They reached their greatest heights with the later Mahler Symphonies, and the outstanding rhythmic and multi-stylistic challenge that Ives’ Fourth Symphony posed. This meant a tremendous amount of work organized through a large set of sectional rehearsals guided by me. There were abundant lists of reading and listening materials for the students.

I organized the first two European Tours for the orchestra in its entire history, with repertoire ranging from Mahler 5th and Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht, to John Harbison’s Fox-trot, playing in Eastern Europe, and making an MIT Symphony debut in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, and Brno. A year later we went on a tour to Cambridge (UK).

MITSO was for me the brightest highlight of my career as an educator. I was extremely lucky to teach the highest IQ group in my professional life. Their capacity and brilliance was unmatched in the Boston area. I always remember their unassuming, humble attitude, their astonishing intelligence, and their unparalleled commitment within an excruciatingly difficult set of classes and tasks in their science and technology classes.

The sole intention of this account to succinctly tell the story of eight long and nice years of my life – years spent with a great group of bright, talented, modest, shy, musically super-talented kids who deserve to be named as such, at a time when youth is a remembrance, and belated tributes should take place.